"Nica's Dream" is a jazz standard[1] composed by Horace Silver in 1954. It is one of many songs written in tribute to jazz patroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter.[2] The song was first recorded by the Jazz Messengers in 1956, and has since been recorded by many other artists. It features jazz melodic minor harmony with prominent minor-major 7th chords. Its first studio recording by Silver was on the Horace-Scope album.
Thomas Owens describes the composition – "The trumpet melody, one of the great themes in jazz literature, is a 64-measure song in aaba form. The accompaniment for the a sections is in a Latin style based on [...] one of Silver's favorite patterns. In the bridge the accompaniment alternates between backbeat chordal punctuations and four-beat swing. During the solos the rhythm section maintains the same accompanimental textures, which both clarify the form and maintain the theme's original moods and textures."[3]
A vocal version was first recorded by Feather in 1983, and released the following year on the album Zanzibar.[4]
